Posts Tagged "Fitness"

One thing I really wanted to make as a goal this year is getting back into yoga. I have done it regularly on and off over the last few years, and especially doing it toward the end of my pregnancy was amazing! So having nearly a year as a new mom without time to do yoga, I was ready to jump back in. I’ve been doing a series on Hulu Plus called “Yoga with a View” that I love. It’s under 25 minutes, is a great combo of a decent physical workout and meditation, and I can do it at my convenience in my living room.

I am sort of picky with my yoga. I don’t like it to be too “fitness class” yoga, which if you’ve been to a class at most fitness centers, you know what I mean. It’s one of the few I’ve done that I think really accomplish centering me without being too cheesy. Anyway, 2014 needs meditation and centering, so I’ve been working on working on myself.

I’ve always hated running. Not in the “I hate working out, but especially running” kind of way. No matter how good of shape I’ve been in, running always made me go, ugh.

I grew up as a figure skater, so I always had plenty of strength and endurance. Give me an intense 90-minute skating practice, no problem; An hour dance class, wahoo! Yoga, pilates, aerobics, biking, hiking, all fine by me — but running was my bane. In skating you train pushing yourself between elements with high bursts of energy and there’s really little time to think about anything but your body and controlling it in between. My problem with running was the steadiness of it — the continual, repetitive motion bothered me and no mental distractions stimulation meant I just got bored.

I tried it many a time, I mean after all, what cheaper, more convenient cardio workout is there? But frankly, I just never had enough in it to really make myself do it. That is, until I got a dog. Last summer we got Daisy, and the boxer breed is known for high energy. Without a fenced backyard, that meant I needed to force myself to run, though this time out of love rather than just personal exercise. Because of that, I’ve found some ways to make myself not only learn to run, but enjoy it.

Really, how can you say no to this face?

Find the right setting.

I can’t do the treadmill. For me it’s like adding monotony to monotony. Plus, for some reason they don’t let Daisy come to the gym. Luckily there’s a gorgeous trail right down the street and can escape to. The landscape the fresh air always seem to put me in a good mood.

Pace yourself.

I have this tendency to push myself to the max. All the time. When it comes to running, that means either a) I burn myself out fast or b) I’m super sore the next several days. That means slowing myself down in the beginning and pushing myself later on. Pay attention to your body and keep your energy consistent.

Get distracted.

I might have a mental problem, but I simply can’t just run without distracting myself. I’m just alone with my thoughts and get bored. So I turn on my Pandora to a new station each time and do my best to zone out. Sometimes I use running as my allotted time to overanalyze think through things. I even turn to social media for distraction — you might see some Foursquare check-ins and Instagram photos whilst running (did I mention I’m a multi-tasker?). If you’re able to lose yourself in the moment, even better. I can do it occasionally, just not on a consistent basis, so I have back-up.

Make little goals.

When I start running, I feel great — energized and motivated. But a ways in, I start into that mental block of wanting to stop and walk or slow down. Listening to my body, I can tell a distinct difference between needing to slow down so I don’t kill my muscles and wanting to slow down “just because.” I play little games with myself when this happens. For instance “just keep running until this song ends.” Then the song ends and I’m feeling okay, so I’ll tell myself, “just keep going until I get to the end of that block ahead.” As I do this more and more I find I can just keep going and can run a lot longer than I would otherwise.

Learn to breathe.

Breathing is extremely important in exercise. I used to get horrible side aches whenever I ran, to the point where I was clutching my side and could barely walk — and this is when I was in amazing shape. A few of my good running friends said it was my breathing and sure enough, since I have learned to breathe properly, I haven’t had an issue. The key is making sure you get enough oxygen and breathing deep breaths filling up your lungs entirely. Control your breaths in and out and work on controlling in both directions. If you’ve learned pilates breathing, control it in much the same way. Conveniently, this is also a great distraction.

Why do you love or hate running?

It’s the new year and this week I have been getting my butt in gear. I’m aiming to exercise five days a week and eat a healthy diet within my calorie limit.

Now I don’t know about you, but I hate feeling constrained to food I hate, constantly struggling to count calories and forcing a workout schedule upon myself. There’s a reason it never works for most people. Many start off strong, but give up after a week or two once they get back into old habits. Despite that, people who are track their diet, exercise, and weight tend to lose weight more consistently. That means the key to success is tracking your real-time progress and following your schedule so you can get real, measurable results.

Why I like My Fitness Pal.

You set the goals.

When you create an account, you input your health goals whether you’re looking to maintain and tone or lose weight. Having it written down where I see it everyday and tracking progress is half the motivation I need to keep going.

It makes counting calories easy — even fun.

I am a snacker. I am much more likely to eat 5-7 little meals a day than I am to sit down for 2-3 large ones. In many ways this is the ideal way to eat for your metabolism, but when I stop watching what’s going in, it’s easy to end up over-indulging. With the MFP food diary you simply look up the food you ate (down to the exact brand and amount), and input it into breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks where it records all the nutritional info. Now for the fun part — they also have a handy barcode scanner so you can scan the exact food your eating and it is added instantly. Yeah, I’m a nerd, but I sort of get excited to use the scanner.

Once you start tracking, you will start to make smarter decisions about where to “spend” your calories. You find yourself choosing an apple instead of muffin or a side salad instead of fries to conserve your calories. Afterall you don’t want to get to dinner and realize you only have 200 left. Beyond calories, it also measures your other daily nutrients like fat, calcium, fiber, etc so you can make sure you’re reaching your nutritional goals there as well. I don’t worry too much if I go over on vitamin C, but if I’m way over on fat even if I’m under on calories, I know I need to watch it.

It makes me want to exercise.

The site has tons of different exercises and is measured by the amount of time you spend doing that exercise. A lot of losing weight is about your caloric intake. If you are maintaining your weight by consuming 2,500 calories and you lower that to 2,000, you will begin to see results. Now if you eat 2,500 calories but burn 500 at the gym, you still net out at your caloric goal of 2,000. You see the incentive here? I love food and those calories represent something totally delicious I would otherwise have to abstain from. I started to notice how much more I love my workout days over my “too lazy to get off my ass” days because I got to eat a little more. Also on days I know I have a party or a dinner out, I plan ahead by burning some extra calories to make up for it.

You can track weight, measurements and progress.

Not only can you track your daily progress in your caloric intake, but you can track your weight and measurements week to week. It creates a graph so you can see progress since your last “weigh in.” You can add custom measurements too! For instance I added stuff like body fat and water weight (since my scale tracks those) as well as measurements like my waist, hips, thighs, etc. Tracking this shows your visible progress and gives you even more motivation to keep it up.

Connect with friends for motivation.

Find other fitness pals or even share info with your actual workout buddies to keep you in line and cheer you on. I have a few friends in different states and we all comment on each other’s posts when they’ve accomplished something great like losing weight or rocking it at the gym. Don’t worry — they don’t have to see it all. You can choose to keep all your info totally private if you want, or control what your friends see. With my friends, my feed will share when I’ve lost weight (but not if I’ve gained) and my workouts.

To sum it up.

It’s free, makes managing your diet and exercise easy, it’s on your phone so it goes wherever you do, and it will help you actually stick to your goals. in 2010 when I was using it, I actually managed to lose five pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas — that’s a lot when it was only those few pesky pounds I had to lose! All in all, it’s a great app and has really helped me stay in line.

How do you track your fitness goals?

When I was a kid walking home from elementary school, I always used to play this game with myself where I’d close my eyes and see how long I dared to walk before I got nervous and had to look. As lame as it may seem, it’s hard to let yourself be vulnerable like this — walking forward without being 100% sure where you’re going.

In so many ways this is a metaphor for my life. Like many women I know, I have this need to be not only watching, but planning every step ahead. It’s totally scary to let go, but it’s sort of liberating to just take a moment to close my eyes and let life happen no matter what lies ahead. When you don’t have a set path, it can also help your stress with being “in the right place” when the right place is right now.

Now when I am on my walks with miss Daisy I still find myself playing this little game. Like life, she’s a bitch, so it’s perfect training for the real thing. Try it. I just take a deep breath and hold on with trust she’ll guide me the right way. The first few seconds are fine, but as I even go 6-10 seconds in, I find myself freaking out. Just push through it. You’ll find you are so much more aware of your surroundings when you just live in the moment, sun shining through your eyelids and breeze blowing through your hair. And when you can appreciate the moment, there’s little room to stress about where you “should” be.